Song Of The Day - Newton Faulkner

A brilliant song, from the brilliant album Hand Built By Robots, take it away Newton.

More Electric Vehicles Arrive

Previously we’ve written about the world’s first street legal motorcycle from Enertia Bike and it is soon to be followed by three more fully electric vehicles.

The Vectrix Maxi scooter is fully electric with a range of 68 miles at 25mph. With a top speed of 62mph and a cost of $11,500 the scooter has a better range and slightly lower cost than the Enertia bike. The sales video below gives you further details.

The first electric SUV vehicle (and SUT pick-up version) is coming from Phoenix Motorcars, although has just been delayed until 2008. They have a range of over 100 miles and a top speed of 95mph, covering 0-60mph in 10 seconds. They should be on sale for around $45,000 when released. Another sales video below gives you a guided tour.

Finally (for now) an electric sedan is on the horizon from Miles Automotive Group. No YouTube video for this one, but apparently it has a top speed of 80 miles per hour and a range of 120 miles. 6 hours of charging from a normal wall socket will provide a full charge.

[Links, videos and picture all via the excellent Eco Shopper]

Even Friends of The Earth Use Plastic Bottles!

This is taken from a BBC News report a couple of weeks ago and shows a guy from Friends of the Earth (Michael Warhurst, waste and resources campaigner) being interviewed about recycling and there’s a plastic bottle in the background! True, the production team may have put it there to show the sort of things that need recycling but I think it more highlights the fact that it’s very hard to get away from plastic if even someone as environmentally conscious as him uses them.

The story was about ‘pay-as-you-throw’ schemes which personally I don’t think will ever work, although they showed somewhere in Holland where it does so no doubt it’ll be brought into the UK soon, but how it works in a block of flats I don’t know.

If you’re interested in the video, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/ and in the search box at the top type in “pay as you throw” and it’s the first result in the audio and video search from 22 August. Sorry I haven’t got a direct link!

Help To Compost At Home

A company from Bangalore, India, hopes to help us do one simple thing: compost.

The Daily Dump offers an array of decorative composting containers that can be used in the home to manage organic household waste and convert it to useful high-quality compost.

Composting pots and vessels made of biodegradable terracotta in a variety of shapes and sizes can be purchased on the website, which features a guide to help customers choose which is right for their needs. Rakes, spoons, spatulas and other supplies are also available. The website offers extensive information and tips, such as what items can and can’t compost. Consumers who lack the time or desire to care for their composting pot can select a weekly, fortnightly or monthly service plan, with a Daily Dump ‘servicewalla’ dropping by to take care of maintenance: cleaning pots, adding dry leaves and stirring the compost. Those who don’t mind doing their own maintenance can opt out of the service plan and call them when they have an issue that needs to be addressed by a professional.

The Daily Dump is currently is limited to small residential composting, but the company has big plans for expanding its operations to include composting products for businesses and larger homes, solutions for dealing with inorganic waste and further ventures to address larger urban environmental issues.

Do you compost at home? Is it easy where you live? Please let us know if you have any other great composting ideas.

[Via: Springwise]

Another Bag To Change The World?

Bags of Change are stylish hemp-cotton bags that you can buy from local organic and Fairtrade stores in the UK. Nothing really new in that, but as well as avoiding the need for plastic bags these bags award you discounts on local, organic and Fairtrade goods at participating stores.

The bags cost £14.95 each and can be bought online as well as in stores such as So Organic’s new store in Greenwich, London. You can see a full list of participating shops here.

The Fun Green Roundup #2

It’s drinking this week, and not water, but alcohol. Here’s some of the sites in the environmental blogosphere that have written about green beer.

Make your own
I’ve never been tempted to make beer myself, until now after I’ve read about all the stuff that goes into a pint. Green Options has done a brilliant guide to making your own beer.

Drink with others
If you want to meet similar-minded people and share a green pint, check out what Life Goggles had to say here about Green Drinks International.

Drink local
And that doesn’t mean going to the bar closest to you. Unplugged Living has an article on drinking the product of local breweries, cutting down on the miles beer etc it has to travel to reach your throat.

Water
I did say at the beginning this wouldn’t be about water, but you’ll need some after all that drinking. Life Goggles did a guide on drinking water here.

You’re not alone trying to find green beer
Just as I was writing this the other week, it coincided with Labor Day in the US so a few sites wrote about how to get drunk in a green way. Treehugger had some good tips and I particualarly liked Vanessa’s advice at Green as a Thistle with a cracking picture to go with it.

The Ultimate DVD and CD Competition!

This competition has now closed

It’s been a while but we have another competition for you. A lot of you will know that I will soon be emigrating from England, and therefore am having a big clearout. Therefore note that these prizes aren’t all “brand new”, but are “as new”, but hey, they’re DVDs/CDs and in this age of Reuse, Reduce and Recycle, it’s good to share!

There are two sets of prizes, together probably worth over £400. You can enter for just one prize, or both (one entry for each of the two prizes).

10 Top CDs Prize

Razorlight - Razorlight
Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight
Rhythms Del Mundo - Cuba
Ray Lamontagne - Trouble
The Fray - How To Save A Life
The Feeling - Twelve Stops And Home
Maximo Park - Our Earthly Pleasures
Radio 1’s Live Lounge
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Idelwild - Make Another World

DVD Prize

Please note many of these are US DVDs and therefore you must be capable of playing both UK and US DVD regions.

- Movie DVDs -
Click
Cold Mountain
The Exorcist
French Kiss
Girl With The Pearl Earring
Green Mile
In America
A Mighty Wind
The Mummy
Rush Hour 2
Scream Collection (Scream 1, 2 & 3)
Snatch
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Swordfish
Traffic
Wedding Crashers

- TV DVDs -
Alien Nation: The Complete Series
American Dad: Season 1
Batman: Mystery Of The Catwoman (animated)
Battlestar Galactica - TV Series Pilot
The Day Today
The Fast Show Farewell Tour
Football’s Greatest Ever Matches (1 & 2)
RoboCop TV Movie Collection
The Royle Family - Series 2
The Complete Ripping Yarns
The Simpsons Complete Seasons 5, 6 & 7

All you have to do to enter is fill in the form below. This will also sign you up for our free, short weekly newsletter (you can unsubscribe easily at any time, but must be subscribed when the competition winners are drawn to be in with a chance). If you are already a newsletter reader, then you still need to enter the form below. Just tell us what prize you want to try and win, CDs, DVDs, or either!

By entering you are confirming that:

- You are over 18 years of age.
- If you are entering to win DVDs that you have a multi-regional DVD player, capable of playing different DVD regions.
- You understand that these are not brand new items.
- You are in the UK.
- Closing date is Tuesday 2nd October 2007.

This competition has now closed

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